Sunday, June 9, 2013

Cooking with Gas


This week was a good week for my kitchen, a very good week.  I have grand plans for this kitchen but am a way away from execution since I’m on a cash-only basis with all my repairs….so for now I’ve painted and made very minor updates to get me by until I can start moving some walls but it’s definitely a less than ideal kitchen.

Kitchen...the before.  This was taken on one of my walk through's before I actually closed....Remember this
wall paper from my diningroom before post?  Yup it really was everywhere

Part of the joy of not cooking in my kitchen for the last couple of years has been this baby…

Cooking old school on my Magic Chef Gourmet Collection Stove...

Yes, there are only 3 burners…and a metal plate soldered in the hole where the 4th burner used to be…and the oven….oh the oven.  Everything either over baked or under baked…..and no working broiler left me pan frying sirloin tips one night when my grill unexpectedly ran out of gas….ugggh.


So, I have known since I moved in it was past time to replace.  The only problem…and this was sort of a big one…I wanted a gas range…and my house was not piped for gas….and natural gas doesn't run down far enough on my street to reach my house (I’m toward the end of a dead end).


This was going to be work….not just your routine shop and wait for the delivery.  I called my plumber (thank you Tim Liporto!) to get the piping going and scheduled a site visit with a gas company who stood me up (a little longer story here but the crux is they stood me up after I rushed out of work early one day and battled traffic to get home to meet with them…not pleased!), then called a different gas company who not only showed up on a snowy Saturday morning but was so pleasant & helpful in walking me through exact next steps….thank you Adam Scott at Scott Energy in Gloucester!

I did quite a bit of online “window shopping” to find just the perfect stove…an LG double oven, 5 burner so I was prepared when I went off to the appliance store (I really wanted to buy local).  In the first store the old geezer sales guy was so condescending to me I refused to spend a dime with them.  Really, I came in with exactly what I wanted to buy, had done the research, knew the appropriate price & questions to ask.  It wasn't a tough sale…10 min max.

Moving along…I then went to Yale Appliance.  Holy cow, they were awesome!  I had heard they were…and they went beyond expectation.  I went in with the info on the LG model I had picked and was immediately greeted by a receptionist who introduced me to a sales guy to help.  20 min later I had seen what they had, discussed the pros & cons of the LG model and ended up leaving a bit poorer but the proud (and VERY pleased) owner of a Kitchen Aide double oven/5 burner beauty.

Showroom floor at Yale Appliance & Lighting
296 Freeport St  Dorchester, MA
source

The following week (last week) they delivered and that couldn’t have gone any better.  I was soooo worried the delivery guys would have problems with my very old and narrow doorways.  Nope, they arrived (on time!) and were in and out in 10 min.

she looks kind of sad on that liftgate...almost like she knows she's heading to the
great appliance nursing home in the sky

Mostly because of my crazy schedule, this whole process took waaayyy longer than it should have (months)….but my patience finally paid off and my new stove was installed on Tuesday.

Fresh off the truck...not yet installed

Now just need to decide what to do with the hood...replace with a micro-hood or embrace
the vintage and keep it (it works fine)...the microwave has to go!

Now I’m just a little reluctant to use it…it’s so pretty and I just don’t want to get it dirty ha.

Look ma...no paint on the side